From the Same Group of Photographs, a General View of the Acropolis from the Hill of Philpappos Captures the Site Prior to Removal of Some Post-Classical Evidence
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
From the same group of photographs, a general view of the Acropolis from the Hill of Philpappos captures the site prior to removal of some post-Classical evidence. The Frankish Tower, east of the Propylaia is visible before its demolition in 1874–75. Precise details on the construction date, builders and purpose of the tower remain elusive but it was one of thirty known medieval towers to have been erected in central Greece. It was demolished to remove non-Classical interventions on the site of the Acropolis and return the site to a state approximating its Classical fifth century BCE appearance, symbolic of the country’s independent and illustrious past. Athens, The Acropolis Seen From The Hill Of Philpappos, ca. 1860 Dimitrios Constantinou Greek, active 1850s-1870s albumen silver print The Janos Scholz Collection of Nineteenth-Century European Photography 1994.030.177.D PhoTOGraphs of MonumenTS IN “OTher” ParTS of THE WorLD 23 This view of Islamic Cairo is a smaller version from a series of seven mammoth-plate negatives that constructed a panorama of Cairo. The panorama was displayed at the Architectural Photographic Association in 1858 and at the Photographic Society in 1859. Titled Cairo from the Citadel, a structure that offers a commanding view of the city, this First View includes, beyond Rumayla square, the Madrasa and Friday Mosque of Sultan Hasan built 1356–63, with flat roofs and slanted sheds in the foreground, and a dense city fabric stretching to the horizon. The mosque was considered an extraordinary monument in the Muslim world, and the most expensive structure built in medieval Cairo. The east façade looks over Rumayla square, traditional location of the horse market in close proximity to the hippodrome, and starting point of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The air vents visible in the foreground are components of a cooling system in use since the time of the Pharaohs, consisting of an air shaft, located behind a wall, connected to a sloping roof vent, oriented to the north. Cairo From The Citadel, First View (Madrasa And Friday Mosque Of Sultan Hasan), 1858 Francis Frith British, 1822-1898 albumen silver print The Janos Scholz Collection of Nineteenth-Century European Photography 1984.024.011 PhoTOGraphs of MonumenTS IN “OTher” ParTS of THE WorLD 24 The photographic services of Lieutenant Louis Vignes were retained by the Duke de Luynes, a wealthy French nobleman with an interest in archaeology, to accompany him on an expedition to the Middle East that would include Lebanon, Palestine, the Dead Sea and Jordan. Although Vignes acquired his photographic skills for this commission, he acquitted himself honorably on his mission, capturing here the rock-carved structures in the ancient city of the Nabataeans. Petra, 1864 Louis Vignes French, 1831-1896 albumen silver print The Janos Scholz Collection of Nineteenth-Century European Photography 1987.015.018 PhoTOGraphs of MonumenTS IN “OTher” ParTS of THE WorLD 25 Thomson traveled to the Far East between 1862 to 1866 and again 1868 to 1872. During 1871-72, he sailed up from Hong Kong along the Guangdong province coast, north of Canton and Macao, reaching the port of Shantou and its inland city of Chaoshou, built on the banks of the river Han. Although Shantou was open to commerce, with harbor facilities that could accommodate large vessels, its inland city, Chaoshou, located thirty miles up the river could only be reached by shallow water crafts. Open to foreign trade as well, the inland city was inhospitable to westerners, and attempts to establish a British consulate had been unsuccessful. Thomson gives a detailed description of his experience attempting to photograph this bridge at Chaoshou, in the presence of hostile residents. China: Bridge At Chao-Chow-Fu, 1871-72 John Thomson British, 1837-1921 collotype, Gift of Dr. Morna O’Neil 2006.021 PhoTOGraphs of MonumenTS IN “OTher” ParTS of THE WorLD 26 Located at the southern end of the site, among a group of structures constituting a governmental palace and nicknamed Las Monjas (The Nuns), the photograph is of a small temple called La Iglesia (The Church). Decorated with masks of the rain god Chaac, the structure has the characteristic Puuc style features of a flat blank surface on the lower level and heavily ornate upper level with stone veneer over a concrete inner structure. In this photograph, vegetation, now removed, is growing out of the sides and top of the structure, seen within an overgrown setting. Without the customary scale references of European architecture such as doors or windows, the figure at the center of the base becomes an essential marker for size. Maya Ruins At Chichén-Itzá, Mexico, 1860 Désiré Charnay French, 1828–1915 albumen silver print Acquired with funds provided by Milly Kaeser in memory of Fritz Kaeser 2000.046 PhoTOGraphs of MonumenTS IN “OTher” ParTS of THE WorLD 27 The mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb or Dog River (called Lykos by the Greeks) is located seven and a half miles north of Beirut where a bridge and railway viaduct had recently been added to a smaller bridge built in 1828–29. This infrastructure of communication highlighted the crossroad nature of the site, located about a hundred feet below the Roman road built in the second century BCE. Seventeen inscriptions and relief panels carved in the rock provide evidence of an earlier road where contacts between ancient cultures occurred. Latin and Greek inscriptions are within close proximity of Assyrian and Egyptian reliefs. This photograph includes a panel with a rounded top over a well-preserved figure of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser II (859–825 BCE) or Esarhaddon (700–688 BCE) and a tablet with a frieze depicting a pharaoh sacrificing to the sun god Ra, a reference to Ramses II, possibly carved at the time of Necho II who reigned between 610 and 595 BCE. Two figures in local dress are shown looking at the inscriptions from below. The clearly- readable Assyrian and Egyptian reliefs are indexical of two among a much larger number of cultures that traveled through that valley. From ancient Egypt to present-day Lebanon, traces of Assyria, Greece, Rome, Christianity, Islam, and the Crusades, have left multiple overlapping signs on this landscape. Album : Lebanon : Inscriptions At The Fleuve Du Chien Les Ponts Du Fleuve Du Chien, ca. 1860-70 Félix Bonfils French, 1829-1885 albumen silver print, The Janos Scholz Collection of Nineteenth-Century European Photography Album: 1982.011.017.D (large album in display case) PhoTOGraphs of MonumenTS IN “OTher” ParTS of THE WorLD 28 These two photographs are located within close proximity of each other between the Sogne and Hardanger Fjords in the county of Hordaland, east of Bergen. Both these photographs are attributed to Knud Knudsen, the first photographer to document the landscape and structures of Norway. By the time of Knudsen’s photographic activity, beginning in the 1860s, the clergyman Eilert Sundt (1817-1875) had conducted his field study of living conditions throughout Norway in the 1850s (published in the 1860s). Knudsen may have been aware of Sundt’s work, or simply expressed in his photographs a personal sensibility to the beauty and significance of a vulnerable heritage. These scholarly or visual displays of Norwegian national heritage reflect the assertiveness of the people in the counties that would reject the Swedish monarchy to become an independent state in 1905. Norway, Hordaland County: Parti Ved Opheimsvandet before 1871 Knud Knudsen Norwegian, 1832-1915 albumen silver print The Janos Scholz Collection of Nineteenth-Century European Photography 1994.030.162.G Norway, Hordaland County: Parti Ved Tvinde, Vos, before 1871 Knud Knudsen Norwegian, 1832-1915 albumen silver print The Janos Scholz Collection of Nineteenth-Century European Photography 1994.030.162.H VernacuLar ArchiTecTure 29 The Stave Church in Borgund, near Laerdal, is located further north in the Sogn og Fjordane county, off the Sogne fjord. The profile view of the church, taken from the north, shows the snow- capped mountainous background, the eastern turret over the rounded apse, and the stone wall that partially hides the lower gallery, as well as the graveyard that surrounds the structure. A standing figure conveys a sense of the scale for this 13.6 meter (44 ½ foot) structure. Today, this triple-nave stave church is the best preserved of the 28 remaining Norwegian stave churches. Norway, Stave Church In Borgund, Near Laerdal, before 1871 Unidentified photographer albumen silver print Scholz Family Collection. Lent by the Christopher Scholz Family. In his photograph of the west façade of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, Baldus documented an advanced stage in its restoration process. Dated to the late 1850s, the photograph probably captures the façade shortly after scaffoldings had been removed, and when the overall impact of the restoration work became visible, although careful examination reveals ongoing activity. Characteristic of the photographer at the height of his career, the frontal view fills the frame with the precision of an elevation drawing. Taken from an elevated viewpoint, the stately and elegantly massive façade dominates the surrounding structures or vegetation visible on the left and right, as the horse carts between the center and left portal reveal the scale of the monument. Paris, West Façade Of Notre Dame, ca. 1857 Edouard Baldus French, 1813-1889 albumen silver print The Janos Scholz Collection of Nineteenth-Century European Photography 1984.012.004 HisToric PreservaTion 30 Absent in the Baldus photograph, the spire over the crossing, removed in 1792 during the Revolutionary interventions on the cathedral, has been reconstructed after a design by Viollet-le- Duc by 1860. The appearance of the original spire had been preserved in engravings and drawings but Viollet-le-Duc developed his own design with a widened base, because he considered that the extant examples on other cathedrals such as Amiens were too thin.